A Day of Sorrow, The Tales of Old

A Day of Sorrow, Chapter 3

Crow reached his hand out, taking hold of and examining the black ball with intrigue. He tapped the string and spun the ball in his hand, perplexed by what he was examining.

"This small thing is going to rid of the soul devourers?"

"Not just one, but many of them. Many, many, many, many. Too many to count. It would take at least two years, I hope no longer, to build what we need. The soul devourers are unorganized, at least for now, and striking them would prove rather effortless with the right planning. Magic would be involved and so on, but I think it's possible."

"Can you get to the brass of it? What is this thing?" Crow asked.

"I call it, a bomb, an explosive. As you know, we can already cause explosives through magic, but not to such a degree as these can. I've built them in such a way that absorbing magic is their primary ability. With a specific spell, the explosion has proven to become ten times as powerful as it was originally. Through a timed assault and planting these all over the continent, we could wipe out a majority of soul devourers and then kill the rest by hand. I'm willing to give these designs to The Order as long as they're used as they should be, to exterminate our enemy. You're the only high kalris that I believed would listen without trying to steal my blueprints and use them as a weapon of war."

Crow placed the bomb on the tea table, biting his bottom lip and nervously playing with his hands. He eyed the bomb a couple of times, a look of disgust passing through his gaze.

"Do you disapprove?" Derosai asked, sitting across from him.

"No, it's a good idea. Some concerns of mine frighten me. If these were to be built in a two-year deadline, mass production would be in order, meaning thousands would know how to craft these... bombs. No matter if we rid of the soul devourers or not, they will become a weapon powerful enough to lay cities to ruin. A power no man should hold."

"If you have any other way of destroying our common enemy, I'm all ears," Derosai said.

Crow rubbed his forehead, "no, we'll take it, but for now, give me time so that I can find trusted people to work on this without The Order's knowledge. If Alice was to hear of this, she would undoubtedly use it to her advantage against political rivals. I don't want this weapon on the market. If everything goes well, we'll destroy the bombs by the end and erase everyone's memory of the invention."

"Whatever works for you. Would you like to see it in action?" Derosai asked, grinning.

"Sure, but first, one thing confuses me. Why give this weapon to us? I know you're a defector. It took me awhile to figure it out, but nothing stays hidden from my eye forever."

Derosai's eyes widened and her hand instinctively grabbed her glass of wine, bringing it to her lips before realizing that it was empty. Even as she placed it back down on the table, her fingers stayed interlocked with the glass and her gaze remained glued to Crow.

"And did you turn me in to your wife?"

Crow stared at her, as if studying her. For the first time, even though she had known of his skills long before their six years of friendship, she shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. His silence told her all that she needed to know.

Derosai swallowed deep, a lump forming in her throat, "I thought we were friends. I would've expected you to come to me first."

"We are friends. It's the only reason we're sitting here without an army surrounding this base. She doesn't know. Now, answer my question. Why give us this weapon instead of The Defectors? They could obliterate our armies from the sheer surprise of a new weapon such as this," Crow said.